Volkswagen says it can now make cars entirely in China

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/11/26/companies/volkswagen-cars-china/

Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume told reporters that producing a majority of cars in Germany before exporting them all over the world "doesn't work anymore."

53 points · 16 comments · view on lemmy.world

16 Comments

Jajcus@sh.itjust.works · 33 pts · 300d (7 replies)

Chinese manufacturers can make cars in China too, easier an cheaper, especially after such 'technology transfer' (they learn a lot manufacturing for someone else). And then the western companies cry about 'unfair competition'.

WanderingThoughts@europe.pub · 18 pts · 300d (1 reply)

And Tesla already walked right into that one. They produced their cars in China, starting up an ecosystem for EV parts, and that gave dozens of new Chinese car manufacturers the means to start up to become cheaper and more innovative. Now Tesla's sales are dropping and dropping there.

So of course Volkswagen is there to say "we can do that too".

frongt@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 299d

They probably did the math on letting China copy them now or over the course of a few years.

drunkosaurus@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 300d (1 reply)

cheaper

The funny thing is, I guarantee you right here and now that none of those cost savings will make it into the price of the final product.

mPony@kbin.earth · 7 pts · 300d

cost savings

Goodness no :) Money is only for people who already have too much of it. The rest of us have to Squid Game / Long Walk / Running Man for our next meal.

ms_lane@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 300d (1 reply)

China will learn how to cheat NOS emissions!?

avidamoeba@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 300d

They went straight to BEV.

andreluis034@bookwyr.me · 4 pts · 300d

Kinda of unfair. The Chinese government essentially mandated that cars needed to be built in China if OEMs wanted to sell cars in China, I doubt OEMs were willing to lose 40+% of their sales just because they didn't have factories in China.

Of course it was a lose-lose situation, as they will just get their parts copied and lose market percentage.

ms_lane@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 300d (5 replies)

*Except for Porsche obviously. (Blume was the CEO of Porsche before VW group and would see the entire group closed to ensure some rich fucks get their crappy badly engineered 911)

massive_bereavement@fedia.io · 6 pts · 300d (3 replies)

I always thought that it was in bad taste that Porsche made a car to commemorate the WTC attack.

einkorn@feddit.org · 3 pts · 300d (2 replies)

You serious?

Because Porsche must have had quite a bit of foresight in 1964, when the first model of the 911 series was released.

Theprogressivist@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 300d (1 reply)

Woosh

einkorn@feddit.org · 7 pts · 300d

With .ml around it's better to ask

pwalshj@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d

^has never drove a 911

20cello@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 300d

Mmmh...

Lumidaub@feddit.org · 1 pts · 300d

Hurra.